Late Central Zempachi
Late Central Zempachi is a language of the Zempachi peoples, linguists believe that it is spoken around 1500-1000 BK by peoples of Kihan Kuka and Kihan Durisa. Late Central Zempachi is the best known language of the Zempachi peoples, as it is attested in several Amutetikam and Umbric texts with translations. Although no scripts of the Zempachi peoples have been known, there are enough documents about Late Central Zempachi by Amutetikam and Umbric peoples to let linguistics reconstruct many details about the language. This is about the central dialect of Zempachi languages of about 1000 BK Phonology * */h/ might actually be x. * it seems that */z/ and */d/ correspond to */ð/ and */l/ of some other less-known zempachi languages respectively. syllable structure: ©V(N), where N is the nasal consonant /n/ with allophones m(before labials) and ŋ(before velars). Grammar Word order Below is the word order of Late Central Zempachi: * Basic word order: SVO(in sentences with two arguments)/VS(in sentences with one argument) * Adpositions are prepositions * Modifiers generally follow the word they modify, but in verb-noun compounds or adjecive-noun compounds that produce nouns, modifiers precede the word they modify. Morphologically, Zempachi was largely analytic, however, several affixes, both derivational and inflectional ones, do exist. Verbal Morphology There are no agreements, but there are still inflections for Tenses and Aspects: * Infinitive: -Ø/-ə(there's a tendency to replace -ə with -a) * Present Tense is formed by using the suffix -Ø/-a * Past Tense is formed by using the suffix -sa/-əsa * Past particle is formed by using the suffix -sa/-əsa ** Passive voice is formed by using the suffix -sa/-əsa on the verb and is used with the aux verb ar-ə("to go/come"). The agent is introduced by the preposition hata/ta * Present Particle: -ya/-aya Compound Tenses: * Future Tense is formed by "kan-ə+V(infinitive)", Present continuous is formed by "ar-ə+ma+V(present particle)" There's a tendency to suffix certain words to verbs, forming applicative-like structures, in order to emphasize words of different thematic roles: * pu hətusanən ta gəda nəma gə - pu hətu-sa-nən ta gə-da nəma gə - 2.SG make-PART-purpose with 3.PRON-PL of 3.SG - it is made for you by them(equivalent sentence: gə ar-əsa hətu-sa nən tə pu ta gə-da) Also it is pretty common to incorporate nouns into verbs, and it is also common to use compound verbs consisting of several verbs. Evidence shows that there are several verbs with singular and plural forms, which suggested the existence of pluractionality(in infinitive forms): * sit: ŋəb-ə(singular) - ŋip-ə(plural) * stand: kun-ə(singular) - kin-ə(plural) * die: mad-ə(singular) - mayd-ə(plural) Words Pronouns Click here for the word list of Late Central Zempachi: Personal Pronouns * 1st person(singular or exclusive): an/na ** 1st person inclusive: napu * 2nd person: a-pu/pu * 3rd person: gə * personal plural suffix: -da * reflexive(self): na * someone/something: han Demonstratives * this/these(proximal deixis): kə * that/those(neutral deixis): daw(also used as relativizer) * that/those(distal deixis): ara * the(definite article): da/a(from daw)(frequently procliticized to the front of the noun) Interrogatives * who: da * what: də Numerals It seems that there are two forms of two and three, the longer forms are used as independent words; while the short forms are attached to other words: # 1：yara # 2：nari # 3：gutay # 4：pəgu # 5：kawda # 6：kətə # 7：bihaza # 8：dama # 9：rəgusa # 10：tada * 20: tada-ən~tadan * 30: tadazi * hundred: kaba * thousand: məka * ten thousand：rəpə Prepositions * with(instrumental): hata~ta * to: tə * at: ma * from/of: nəma(from nə "root/origin" + ma "at") * for: nəntə(from nən "purpose/cause" + tə "to") Other words * Negation(no/not): ma * and: ŋa Examples * gəda kəru nəma dakusan nəma Bətu ŋanda - gə-da kvru-Ø nəma da=kusan nəma Bətu ŋanda - 3.PRON-PL come-PRES from the=land from/of people mountain.- they come from the land of Mountain people(Bətu ŋanda can be used to refer the Handapachi people or the Songke-speaking peoples). * akətuna gusarəsa kukakuka kisa - a=kətuna gusar-əsa kuka-kuka kisa - the=dog find-PST bird-PL some - the dog found some birds.